I know Tait can bowl, but to me he is not an Aussie player. From an outsider the modern Australian player seems very polished at the beginning of their career with many of their cricketing rough edges already shaven off.

You think so? That's sometimes true, but there are plenty of examples which don't fit that theory at all. Quite a lot of the highly successful Australian batsmen in the last 10-15 years came into the side as unfinished products and struggled a lot early in their careers. That's not true so much with bowlers, but Hayden, Martyn, Langer, Waugh, Ponting etc all got dropped early on and worked their way back into the side, and didn't peak until their late 20s or early 30s.

Tait is by no means a complete bowler, but he is improving and he's a pretty good option to have as your 4th or 5th choice seam bowler. While he is erratic and, more importantly, has a tendancy to bowl one very good spell and then go missing for the rest of the day, there's no reason that he can't work on the less polished aspects of his game and turn out to be a very good player. He's still young after all, and his record is pretty clear evidence of his talent, especially for someone such as yourself who rates first class achievements so highly.

Ponting said that the only way McGrath wouldn't play was if he had his leg amputated.

Originally Posted by Top_Cat

1) Had double pneumonia as a kid, as did my twin sis. Doctors told my parents to pray that we lived through the night. Dad said **** off, I'm an atheist, you ****s better save my kids, etc. Then prayed anyway.

A True Champion - Bob. Rest in peace. 15/04/06"People today have too big a devil and too small a God"
- Stephen Currie"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1